Author Web Page

Thursday, February 28, 2013

This week's dare over at Color My Heart is Lagoon, Outdoor Denim, and Pear. It took me longer to photograph than to make these cards, and the Pear color still looks like it's nauseous...trust me, these cards are much cuter in person.

I used Cricut Craft Room to "weld" four argyle (1.75 inches) patterns from Artiste (p.75) together. The total length of the strips came to just about 7.5 inches, which you will need for the angled "thanks" card only. I then cut one each from Lagoon, Outdoor Denim, and Pear. After gluing the full strips into place, I glued the fill in pieces. (I highly recommend the small tip glue stick for this project.) For the two word balloon cards (Artiste coordinating stamp set, Word Balloons), I stamped in Outdoor Denim then sponged both Lagoon and Pear over the top of "hello" and pear around the edge of "thanks." The sentiment on the birthday card comes from Card Chatter-Birthday.

For the Lagoon strip down the side of the "hello" card, I simply used the leftover piece from the Cricut cut, trimmed it to 5.5, and wedged it against the Pear argyle cut. This one is my favorite of the three.

I am so disappointed in how these photographed. They are really, really cute in person.

Friday, February 22, 2013

I have a prayer system. Certain things remind me of certain people. Coffee reminds me of Karen, so I pray for her while I make my husband's morning coffee. When I won the Mojo Monday #279 contest for this card, I chose "Better With You" as my free stamp set. I thought it only appropriate the first card I made with it be for her:

Thursday, February 21, 2013

My daughter has been married for three-and-a-half years. Her husband is a motor bike enthusiast. He follows the sport, rides them, and even repairs them for a living. But when their car finally gave up the ghost (and he'd been working to keep it running using his considerable mechanical skill), he traded in his motorbike to get her a new car. Yep, he's a good one.

The sunset effect was done using two different techniques. The first was watercoloring. I squeezed the lid into the Sunset ink pad, picked up the excess ink, and brushed it on the white square working it down about a third of the paper. I then squeezed the Honey ink pad, and brushed the middle third, and finished with the Buttercup ink for the bottom third. When it was dry, I put it under a book overnight to straighten out the paper.

Before quitting for the night, I colored two brass brads with a black Copic marker and let them set overnight, too.

The next day, I used sponge daubers in Sunset across just the top and Honey along the left side. I stamped the bike in the lightest corner of color making sure to go off the edges.

I used a 1/2 inch circle punch to create the notches and then foam mounted it onto a square piece of linen cut 1/4 inch larger. Since the inked paper was still a bit warbled, there is a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of foam mounting tape under the colored piece. I used a pen to mark the center of the notched out areas, punched a small hole, and pushed the black brads through.

To make sure the edges under the brads stayed flush to the card base, I used super strong double sided tape. I've long ago thrown out the box it came in, but I got it at Hobby Lobby or Michael's.

The Blush heart and sentiment (which includes "you" in the cut...I just didn't use it) were cut with CTMH's Artiste Cricut cartridge. I cut the sentiment from both white and Cranberry then carefully snipped the edges of the Cranberry "Love" and mounted it off center onto the white one. The mask for the hearts on the banner were created by using three different sized heart punches. I sponged the banner and doilie heart with CTMH White Daisy pigment ink. The picture doesn't show it well, but I added a little white pigment sponging to the inside of the Blush doilie heart to give it extra dimension. The sparkles are also from CTMH but you can get them from your local craft store, too. The "YOU" stamp is from CTMH "Mad About You" (2011 Stamp of the Month special).

Upon reflection, I realize the "I Love" is not angled enough. Or it's not straight enough. It's in the awkward what-exactly-were-you-thinking position. I was thinking angled. At least I think that's what I was thinking.

Since I am set for Valentine's Day cards for the year, I'll put this in my stash of cards for Operation Write Home. I'll keep it here, though, until the call for Valentine's cards comes in November.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

For those of you who are participating in the Clean & Simple class, you know I'm way out of order on my days. And I'm not even sure if this qualifies because it doesn't look CAS. What do you think?

The music background stamp is from Peddler's Pack and was embossed with white detail powder over Versamark. The saying is from PSX and was stamped in white detail over black and in black detail over cream.

Friday, February 8, 2013

I love Clean and Simple (CAS) cards, but I'm not always sure how to make them. I joined the class over at Online Card Classes today and am trying to catch up on the classes. Day 8, which was a few days ago, featured salted watercolor. Day 9 featured glitter and ombre coloring. So here's my entry into both days:

This second picture shows the glitter on the vellum banner a little better. I used Polysparkle embossing powder.

The glitter dots are just a puddle of Liquid Glass covered in Prisma Glitter which I let sit for about 15 minutes before shaking off the excess. I was trying to find a way to add a pop of color, but everything looked a little too festive for a sympathy card.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

I knew two things when I got this week's Color My Heart dare colors, I wanted to use the Burlap Ribbon and I wanted to combine the Blush and Cranberry colors with another challenge. Here's what I came up with:

I also thought it would be nice to limit my stamps to one set. Although I own a bazillion stamp sets (yes, bazillion with a "B") and can combine to my heart's delight, I think we sometimes do an injustice to people who might have fewer sets. This card uses Love Life. The only finagling I did was with "Love..." The actual stamp says, "Live. Laugh. Love." I inked just "Love.", cleaned it, then very carefully inked the "." and stamped it two more times.

Can you see the pattern on the paper strip of Cranberry? That's tone on tone using one of the texture stamps. The only non-CTMH thing on this card is the white satin-edged ribbon. It came from Hobby Lobby. The Blush paper is from an old B&T set. If you wanted to achieve this same effect, you could lightly sandpaper cardstock to expose a hint of the white core.

And that swirl, well...let me tell you what happened there. I got the card done without it and thought, "I need to create a triangle of Cranberry for the sake of symmetry." Mind you, the card is now done. Sewed, mounted, stuck down, done. And there are scissors, ink pads, daubers, and other bits of stuff littering my desk. I decide to add the swirl but forget to clean off a space on my desk. I peel back the ribbon, stamp the swirl, and...oops. The image isn't complete because the edge of my acrylic block is resting on a pair of scissors.

Yeah.

But even though I had to do a second stamping and it didn't line up perfectly, I wasn't so unhappy with it that I decided to redo the entire card. However, if you plan to stamplift this card, I suggest clearing a space and stamping the swirl before you sew the blush piece or secure the burlap ribbon. But it's only a suggestion.

Until next time,Becca

P.S. When I showed this card to my husband, he said, "Does it say 'obey' on the inside?" It doesn't, so he thinks the card isn't finished. I'm not sure if I will dissuade him from that thinking or not. I find it's better to let him live with his illusions sometimes.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

I recruited my husband to draw the winner of the card from the OWH Blog Hop. The lucky lady is Nancy Boatwright, but I don't have an e-mail. So...Nancy, if you're out there, leave me an e-mail address so I can send you a set of cards.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

I have an entire file for cards featuring cute critters, so when Operation Write Home requested us to sign up for a critter blog hop, I got on board immediately.

You should have come from JoAnn Ross's blog. If you are starting here, don't worry, just keep going and you will eventually get back to me.

This adorable stamp is from Penny Black. I colored with Copics, but you'll notice I was not worried about blending on the hair. I just flicked color from three different brown markers to give it dimension.

The ladybug was supposed to have white space left when I finished coloring, but it all sort of blended together, so I went back in with a white gel pen to add the white highlights. The shiny shell was created with Liquid Glass.

The sentiment tag is actually a ticket (cut with CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge) which I tucked under the main panel. I'm not sure where the "hello..." sentiment is from.

Now you're off to Patricia's blog. Remember to keep going until you come full circle so you don't miss a single cute critter.

If you would like to win this card (and just maybe a couple others featured recently), please become a follower and leave me a comment below that you either became a follower or already are one. I will draw a winner at random on February 6th. If you don't think you'll remember to come back and check, please leave your e-mail in your comment and I'll contact you if you're the winner.